August 19, 2004
The ‘JOLTers’ Journey:
39 American Teens Return
Home Deeply Moved from Visit
to Ukraine, Poland and
Israel
A group of 39 teenagers from all over the United
States returned home recently from a summer program in Ukraine, Poland
and Israel that many called “the most meaningful experience of my life.”
JOLT, which stands for Jewish Overseas Leadership Training, is one of a
multitude of summer programs offered by the National Conference of
Synagogue Youth (NCSY), the youth movement of the Orthodox Union.
JOLT, a program available to teenagers who hold leadership positions in
NCSY, had two sessions that traveled separately but with similar
itineraries. The first group was led by Rabbi Mordechai Smolarcik,
Regional Director of the NSCY Southern Ohr HaNegev Region, based in
Miami Beach.
The group spent the first two-and-a-half of the five-week program at the
OU Joseph K. Miller Torah Center in Kharkov, Ukraine, which runs a
summer camp for area Jewish children, many of whom have little or no
Jewish education. The JOLTers teach the children Hebrew, help them pray
and sing, and play along with them, all the while strengthening their
connection to Judaism.
The JOLTers than traveled to Poland to go back in time to the height of
European Jewry and its demise in the Holocaust. Before this select group
of teen leaders returned to the United States, they connected to God and
the Jewish people in Israel.
Photo highlights follow (photos by Noah Lang):
After a
Shabbaton (weekend retreat), JOLTers gather with their campers to
remember their amazing experiences.
JOLTer J.J. Katz from Bal Harbour,
Florida
enjoys a day at an amusement park in Kharkov, Ukraine with two of his
campers.
Once one of the
world’s most vibrant Jewish communities, Warsaw has only one
remaining synagogue, the Nozyk Synagogue, in which JOLTers,
above, learn Torah.
* * *
The Orthodox Union, now in its
second century of service to the Jewish community of North America and
beyond, is a world leader in community and synagogue services, adult
education, youth work through NCSY, political action through the IPA,
and advocacy for persons with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way.
Its kosher supervision label, the  ,
is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over
275,000 products manufactured in 68 countries around the globe.
www.ou.org
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